Tag Archives: Online plant ID resources

Dr M’s mission to discover the best plant ID aids continues, and recently stumbled upon (for that is how the internet often works!) a nice post by Michelle Slatella on the US Gardenista website reviewing apps for plant ID.

2013 was drmgoeswild.com’s first Christmas and he got so excited hanging up his botanical stockings and all, awe bless! Launched in April/May 2013 drmgoeswild.com took off (viewing wise) in the Summer and has grown steadily since, now receiving around 3000 views per month.

Dr M is always on the look our for useful resources for teaching an learning plant ID and recently he discovered (belatedly, for it has been around since 2009!) an illustrated manual by Lena Struwe, Associate Professor in the School of Enviromental and Biological Sciences and Director of the Chrysler Herbarium (CHRB) at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.

Dr M is particularly fond of video as a modern medium for spreading the botanical word and “Plants Are Cool, Too!“ is a YouTube channel acknowledging that animals are pretty interesting – but plants are cool, too!

The BBC and nature have become synonymous not least through the extraordinary work of David Attenborough. The BBC Nature website is well worth a visit for information, images and videos on plants and their habitats. The BBC Nature Places pages provide information from all over the world, follow the UK link to British plants and habitats.

Dr M has already posted on a couple of online aids to tree ID: the SAPS key to trees and shrubs and the Natural History Museum (NHM) urban tree survey key. These two keys are tools to help the beginner ID common species covering around 90 species each.

The Botanical Society of the British Isles website is an excellent place to start or continue you botanical meanderings. BSBI online provides wealth of information about plants, plant recording and links to other resources. Here Dr M provides a pictorial flavour of what is on offer but visit the site, check it out and use it!

There are a growing number of online forums and communities providing free help with plant (and other wildlife) observations and identification. Dr M has already posted on the NHM Nature Plus Plants” community, here Dr M checks out the Open University’s iSpot community.

There are a growing number of online forums and communities providing free help with plant (and other wildlife) observations and identification. Here Dr M checks out the Natural History Museum’s Nature Plus community.